Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Les Adventures Extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc Sec (2010)

Luc Besson goes farther and farther past his once imposed limit of films he said he's direct with an adaption of a French Comic book series. The trailer showed mummies and a dinosaur and I was chomping at the bit to see it.

I'm sure it's going to show up in the US at some point-some day- but I couldn't wait. I picked up the DVD from Amazon France. The plus side I got to see the movie. The down side I have no frigging clue what the film's details were about because there is no English translations.

Did that matter?

Yea, but what I saw amused the hell out of me that I'm looking forward to seeing the film with the words translated. (at least that way I won't have to wait until the end to know what was going on)

The plot of the film has something to do with Adele uncovering some sort of nefarious nonsense in Egypt. Meanwhile a mysterious force hatches a Pterosaurs in a Paris museum. Beyond that I don't have a clue since the neat visual pieces are linked by dialog in a language I don't speak.(There is also something to do with her sister who is in a coma due to a tennis accident)

Some of the colorful characters reminded me very much of Tintin and I can only hope that the Tintin movie looks as good as this.

I suspect that the non-gratuitous nude scene may bollocks the American release since the film appears to be solidly PG rated otherwise.

I have read a couple of reviews of the film which liked it, but didn't love it saying that the film is a bit unfocused (I think the film is actually based on 2 unrelated tales from the comic- but I could be wrong). Based on what I can understand the film does seem to be unfocused- then again I'll take it since some of the twists, such as the rescue by dinosaur isn't something you see every day- especially in pre-WW1 France.

Flawed or not definitely worth a look
(A region 3 version of the film is coming out the week of January 27 in Asia and can be had from Yes Asia for about 20 bucks)

3 comments:

  1. I have seen this film with subtitles (which I spent the greater part of a day synching to the video; hurm.), and it's really fantastic! Very much a Raiders of the Lost Ark type with a bit more quirky fun involving raising Mummies from the dead, hunting a Pterosaur across Paris, escaping rival tomb raiders using the tomb's own traps, and caring for a critically injured sister. The nudity's incidental and really not a big deal.

    Since I first found the poster for this I was looking forward to its release, but later learned that it was France local. ;_; And when finally got to see it, my first thought was what a spectacular Hollywood remake this could be (featuring Anne Hathaway in the title role). But then I came to realize that the film's a gem on its own, and an English language release could be better served with either subtitles or Supercop-style dubbing; the performances are that good on their own.

    Les Adventures Extraordinaires d'Adele Blanc Sec (English: The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc Sec) is a great film, loads of fun, and worth the time of any interested filmgoer. Thanks for featuring it today!

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  2. Anna Hathaway would be perfect- you nailed it.

    I just updated the post with info about and English release via Asia

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